1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of optimizing the operation of a content delivery network such as for example a cable, Hybrid Fiber Copper (HFCu), or satellite network. More particularly, the present invention is in one exemplary aspect related to apparatus and methods for monitoring and optimizing delivery of programs including across a plurality of delivery platforms.
2. Description of Related Technology
Recent advances in digital information processing and technology have made a whole range of services and functions available for delivery to consumers at various types devices for very reasonable prices or subscription fees. These services and functions include digital content or programming (movies, etc.), digital video-on-demand (VOD), personal video recorder (PVR) and networked PVR (nPVR), Internet Protocol television (IPTV), digital media playback and recording, as well high speed Internet access (including so-called “Internet TV”, where television programming is delivered over the Internet without QoS) and IP-based telephony (e.g., VoIP). Other services available to network users include access to, and recording of, digital music (e.g., MP3 files).
Currently, many of these services are provided to the user via a wide variety of different equipment environments and delivery paradigms including, inter alia, cable or satellite modems or QAMs, HFCu (i.e., Hybrid Fiber-copper distribution via indigenous POST/PSTN wiring in a premises), Wi-Fi™ hubs, Ethernet hubs, gateways, switches, and routers, to a plurality of user equipment types. For example, content may be delivered to users at set-top boxes, personal (desktop) computers, laptop computers, other mini-computers (such as so-called “netbooks”, mini-notebook computers), and/or other devices. Recent advances in consumer electronics have also led to the widespread introduction of a variety of portable media devices (PMDs) such as, inter alia, portable digital music devices such as the well known Apple iPod™ and other so-called “MP3 players”, cellular telephones/smartphones, handheld computers, and personal digital assistants (PDA), which allow users to store and playback audio and video files.
Although a myriad of services, equipment, data formats and providers are available, current systems offer little to no interoperability or “intelligent” interrelationship between devices. The request for and playback of audio and video files from a first device is often limited to playback via the device itself. In other words, a user may utilize a device to only select delivery of audio and video files to be played back on that same device. Thus, if a user requests video content, the user is often limited to delivery of the requested content to that device. Further, the request messages are frequently determined by a specific protocol tied to the device or software that maybe incompatible with other device and software protocols thereby creating incompatibility issues. Current technology allows one device to browse the directory structure of other compatible devices (see, e.g., DLNA technology); however, there is no real intelligence or over-arching cognizance of the relationship of all of the devices associated with a given user or subscriber account, and their relationship to different types of content available over the various networks or delivery paradigms.
Nor is their any analysis of what devices or combinations of devices, encodings, etc. would give the user the best “experience” with respect to given content, including consideration of user-specific preferences. Rather, extant solutions are generally completely passive, and take no active role in evaluating, recommending, or selecting content formats, delivery modes or user platforms and translating multiprotocol message requests.
Therefore, what are needed are improved apparatus and methods for distributing content to a plurality of a user premises and PMD devices. Such improved apparatus and services would ideally, upon user request for content, provide users with recommendations for optimizing the user's experience and/or the network workload. For example, mechanisms would be provided to exploit the various features of the different ones of the user's available devices, as well as that user's delivery preferences.
Moreover, it would be desirable to permit the user to view their content anywhere (and on any device) they desire, at any given time, including the ability to transfer extant content “sessions” between different devices, the latter which may include heterogeneous hardware/software environments.